World Ocean Radio

A weekly series of five-minute audio essays on a wide range of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects, brought to you by long-time host Peter Neill. Available for RSS feed, podcast, and syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

This week on World Ocean Radio we celebrate marine protected areas and discuss their importance to biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, and the mitigation of climate change and other destructive forces at work on the planet.

At the end of each year, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reads the poem "At The Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop. This perennial favorite is chosen not only for its relevance for the New Year, but also because it distills years of Bishop's seaside meditations and evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the ocean.
Best wishes, now and for the New Year, from the World Ocean Observatory.

The first Arctic highway was the sea: a moving, shifting system that allowed its inhabitants to be sustained for generations. Since 1974, two more roads have been carved from the Arctic landscape: the first to connect oil fields in the north to consumers in the south; and the second, opened this year, to connect Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk. This second project, more of a local endeavor, links the land's indigenous peoples to economic opportunity and affordable goods and resources. This week we talk...

This week on World Ocean Radio we talk about springs, those fresh water seeps that serve as an integral part of the earth's water system. We introduce listeners to a new app, Hide and Seep, developed by the Spring Stewardship Institute in collaboration with the US National Parks Service Bureau of Land Management and ESRI. Hide and Seep is a mapping software tool that allows citizen scientists to locate water sources and add them to a vast database of fresh water springs.

In this episode of World Ocean Radio we ask who benefits from current solutions to ocean acidification, co2 emissions, and plastic pollution, and if there might be simpler ideas that involve investments in green technologies, demand for alternatives, and a shift in attitudes and behaviors away from a bankrupt system of fossil fuels toward one of sustainability and solution.

In this week's episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill outlines some of the various applications of the oft-times controversial artificial intelligence technologies employed at sea. And he asserts that since the ocean is a place of connection, we should be thinking of digital platforms as a way to design and integrate global systems for a successful and sustainable future.

In this episode, host Peter Neill discusses the need for more funding and energy directed toward the vast unknown ocean, and the importance of scientific endeavor and observation. And he highlights the work of the General Bathymetric Chart for the Oceans (GEBCO), a project dedicated to completing the full mapping of the world ocean by 2030.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part five of a multi-part series on the Arctic. In this episode, host Peter Neill discusses the ongoing debate over geological claims to the Arctic and who owns the rights to the natural resources in the vast outer limits of Arctic waters.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part four of a multi-part series on the Arctic. In this episode, host Peter Neill examines the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic; their role in governance and their limited powers at the bargaining table; the realities of their health and welfare; and the myriad effects of management, policy, and outside interests by foreign governments.

As fisheries worldwide are being depleted by over-fishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU), interest in an ever-expanding Arctic is growing exponentially. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill outlines a July 2015 meeting of five Arctic nations during which catch limits were imposed; and a follow-up meeting in April 2017 in which delegates from five additional countries took the agreement a step forward toward legally binding, an effort that would prevent...

In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill examines a variety of ecosystem services scenarios that look beyond current models and may help to formulate a new value equation for the future benefit of humankind and for healthy, functioning ecosystems.

"Soul of the Sea in the Age of the Algorithm" is a new book by Dr. Gregory Stone and Nishan Degnarain, produced in association with World Ocean Observatory Publications. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill outlines the book and explains the ways in which it provokes the imagination, reveals the advantages of new technologies, calls for creative and talented young people to apply their knowledge and skill in the ocean world, and provides an optimistic platform for a future...

This week on World Ocean Radio: part three of a multi-part series on the Arctic. In this episode, host Peter Neill discusses the melting of sea ice, its causes, the adaptation of native Arctic people, and the potential for future exploitation and passage as sea ice continues to recede.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part two of a multi-part series on the Arctic. In this episode, host Peter Neill examines the Finland chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2017-2019), outlines their statement of intent, speculates about why the Finland approach is so different from past agendas, and ways in which their innovative approach may make it possible for them to succeed for the Arctic.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part one of a multi-part series on the Arctic. In this episode, host Peter Neill examines governance, oversight, resources, and the conditions and challenges facing the Arctic. He describes the work of the Arctic Council, an eight-nation consortium with jurisdiction in the region, and outlines the processes and responsibilities of stewardship by those member nations.

Natural forces unleashed an epic scale of destruction on Houston and surrounding areas of Texas. Built upon consumption, unmitigated growth, and fossil fuels, critics now point to the consequences of development based on an outdated paradigm. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill asks, “What are the questions we should be asking, and what are the lessons to be learned from this catastrophe?” and he suggests a new, reorganizing principle on which to rebuild, one that redesigns...